Medical Anthropology Cheat Sheet

Medical Ecology	emphasizes the environmental context of health
Holistic	studies the entire system of factors affecting health in differing regions
Physical Anthropology	human biology, studies physical origins and variability of human species
Archaeology	reconstructs the way of life of prehistoric peoples by analyzing artifacts and other remains
Linguistics	analyzing sound systems and grammars. Allows anthropologists to understand the native/insider point of view
Adaptation	changes/modifications in physical and behavioral traits enabling a person/group to meet the challenges of a given environment

Homeopathic: using medicines that are similar to the illness. Small substance that creates symptoms of the illness.

Allopathic: medicine that combats disease by remidies that produce effects that are different than the disease.

Ecology: study of the relationship between population and their environments.

Biome: similarities in communities that have evolved under certain conditions around the world. Ex) desert biome.

Population: all of the organisms of a single species in a given habitat.

Species: organisms with shared genetic characteristics, origin, and ability to interbreed.

Ecological niche: the specialized role in a habitat.

Predator-prey relationship: one population serves as a food source for the other.

Symbiosis: two dissimilar species live together.

Parasitism: ind. of a population feed on another population-live on or inside ind. which is called a host.

Reservoir: an animal population that transfers parasites to humans.

Mutualism: symbiosis where both populations benefit from each other.

Energy: capacity to do work.

Clincal Medicine	looks at the diagnosis and treatment of disease in ind. patients
Acute	disease that developes quickly and during short period of time EX. A cold
Chronic	persists for a long time. EX. Arthritis
Disease	deviates from clinical norms/abnormality
Illness	the suferer's interpretation of their experience
Sickness	a social category. the way an ill person is supposed to behave in society
Placebo	no active ingredient

Participant Observation	going to a region for research and participating when applicable
Emic	insider's categories
Etic	outsider's categories in labeling disease
Multisited ethnography	follow a research problem from local to gloabl perspectives and places
Ethnology	generalizations by comparing results of ethnographies describing particular cultures

Epidemiology	study the distribution of disease in populations and factors that explain the disease & its distribution
Epidemic	affects a large # of people in a short period of time
Endemic	affects a small amount of people in a long period of time
Iatrogenic	caused by medical treatment. EX. hepatitis c which is spread by needles
Prevalence	the proportion of individuals who have a disease/condition at one time
Incidence	the rate at which new cases of a disease occur in a population over a period of time
Morbidity	the frequency of cases of disease over a unit of time
Mortality	# of deaths per population over time
Etiology	all the causes of a diseases/abnormality

Medical Anthropology Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by mhenr4